Night Battles

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A01=Carlo Ginzburg
A15=Carlo Ginzburg
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
anthropology
Author_Carlo Ginzburg
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B06=Anne C. Tedeschi
B06=John Tedeschi
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBAH
Category=HBJD
Category=HRQX5
Category=NHAH
Category=NHD
Category=QRYX5
COP=United States
cultural history
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
folklore
inquisition
Italian History
Language_English
medieval
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
social history
softlaunch

Product details

  • ISBN 9781421409924
  • Weight: 363g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
  • Publication Date: 10 Dec 2013
  • Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
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Based on research in the Inquisitorial archives of Northern Italy, The Night Battles recounts the story of a peasant fertility cult centered on the benandanti, literally, "good walkers." These men and women described fighting extraordinary ritual battles against witches and wizards in order to protect their harvests. While their bodies slept, the souls of the benandanti were able to fly into the night sky to engage in epic spiritual combat for the good of the village. Carlo Ginzburg looks at how the Inquisition's officers interpreted these tales to support their world view that the peasants were in fact practicing sorcery. The result of this cultural clash, which lasted for more than a century, was the slow metamorphosis of the benandanti into the Inquisition's mortal enemies-witches. Relying upon this exceptionally well-documented case study, Ginzburg argues that a similar transformation of attitudes-perceiving folk beliefs as diabolical witchcraft-took place all over Europe and spread to the New World. In his new preface, Ginzburg reflects on the interplay of chance and discovery, as well as on the relationship between anomalous cases and historical generalizations.
Carlo Ginzburg has taught at the University of Bologna, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The recipent of the 2010 International Balzan Prize, he is author of The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller and Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, also published by Johns Hopkins.